


Prompt: Pre-Escape

by EssayOfThoughts



Series: MCU Maximoff Oneshots [159]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Canon Divergence - Avengers: Age of Ultron (Movie), Codependency, Gen, Lapsed Jewish Maximoffs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-02
Updated: 2018-05-02
Packaged: 2019-05-01 10:17:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,695
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14518320
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EssayOfThoughts/pseuds/EssayOfThoughts
Summary: Two days. Two days since the experiments, of which only they survived. Two days since the experiments which gave them powers.Two days kept apart.“We have to,” List says when Wanda asks. “With his speed, with your destructive capabilities… What would happen to the two of you, if you hurt each other?”Wanda does not know how to express to him that if they saw each other theywouldn’t.Theycan’t.All their lives they have been twins, siblings, kith and kin. Two halves of one whole.





	Prompt: Pre-Escape

**Author's Note:**

  * For [pupsarecuter](https://archiveofourown.org/users/pupsarecuter/gifts).



> Written for a prompt on my tumblr, readable [Here](http://essayofthoughts.tumblr.com/post/173527844290/is-it-christmas-do-you-write-avengers-avengers).

**i.**   
The quinjet skimmed low over the forest. Under Tony’s cloaking tech they were invisible to outside eyes and the approach to the castle was very nearly silent.

“What’s the op?” asks Nat. “You kind of piled us all in here without much warning Steve.”

Steve’s hands are tight on his shield and his unhelmeted head shows the messy hair that means he’s been taking out his worry on his scalp.

“Hill got info. There’s a cell of SHIELD here. Baron von Strucker and Doctor List. It’s believed they retrieved the Sceptre at some point before the fall of SHIELD. We want it, it’s here.”

Nat huffs a breath of doubt. “And that’s got you so stressed?”

Steve runs gloved fingers through his hair, makes the mess even worse, and sighs. “The last notes by the Doctors,” he says. “Suggested potential for use in human experimentation.”

Bruce looks horrified. Tony swears from his seat at the front.

“Sokovia’s a hellhole,” he says. “There was report of rogue Starktech here a decade or two ago - sold by me, Obie, the CIA. Never found out who. But there’s been on-off war here with my tech and Hammertech and all kinds else involved.”

Nat nods. “Perfect recruiting ground,” she says. “If they’re Hydra…”

Steve pulls himself up as the Quinjet lowers to hover over the castle roof and clamps his helmet onto his head. “We don’t know who they’ve got. What they’ve got. Who they  _ are. _ But we need to get the sceptre out and burn Hydra to the ground.”

 

* * *

 

**ii.**   
Wanda leans back against the wall of her cell. She can  _ feel _ Pietro on the other side of the wall, all rushing blue energy, bruises on his legs and elbows, all his edges whenever the blue in his blood catches him unawares. She knows he can feel her, scarlet falling from her fingers, trailing from her eyes, flitting around the edge of his mind.

Two days. Two days since the experiments, of which only they survived. Two days since the experiments which gave them powers.

Two days kept apart.

“We have to,” List says when Wanda asks. “With his speed, with your destructive capabilities… What would happen to the two of you, if you hurt each other?”

Wanda does not know how to express to him that if they saw each other they  _ wouldn’t. _ They  _ can’t. _ All their lives they have been twins, siblings, kith and kin. And ever since they were ten there has been one rule above all.

_ We Maximoffs. We have each other. That is all we will ever need. _

_ No matter what, we are there for each other. We do not hurt. We do not harm. We only help. _

_ We are two halves of a whole. _

Wanda does not know how to express to him that if they were in one another’s presence they would never harm one another. They can’t. To hurt one another is not something either of them is capable on so deep a level even these impossible powers must bow and bend.

 

* * *

 

**iii.**   
Tony sets up a broadcast frequency. “Novi Grad Castle, this is the Avengers. We have reason to believe you retrieved the Sceptre, permission to land and log?”

There’s nothing but a buzzing response of dead air as the quinjet rear door opens. At Steve’s nod, Tony repeats the call.

Nothing but dead air still.

“Right,” Tony says. “Castle’s inhabited, SHIELD signatures have registered, and they’re not responding. Time?”

“Time,” says Steve, and jumps out of the quinjet. He skids down the roof in a clatter, Nat following far more quietly. Thor launches himself up with his hammer. Clint stays on the roof as Steve and Nat descend, and Tony leaves the jet in Bruce’s capable hands while he suits up.

The guards in the courtyard are taken out in seconds. Nat steals one of their commlinks, sets it to open frequencies and sets it in her open ear.

“Yeah you’ve set SHIELD’s cat amongst Hydra’s pigeons Stark,” she says. “Clint, keep our cover.”

 

* * *

 

**iv.**   
Thor in the sky is kind of hard to ignore, but with only him visible - for now at least, while Tony decides if its worth it to bring in reinforcements or not, or if they should just alert all ex-SHIELD in range that cleanup in twenty minutes would be appreciated and hangs back in preparation - the castle seems confused enough as to start shooting only at him.

They don’t notice the team already in their midst.

 

* * *

 

**v.**   
Wanda’s scarlet caresses her brother’s mind. He sinks into her touch, lets the soothing help him anchor himself. He leans against the wall between them, sighs and shakes. 

“Powers, Wanda,” he says, and knows she can hear him. “They did it. We have  _ powers.” _

He can half-feel her smile, feel how her fingers are twitching, how she can feel the scarlet trailing through dust and dirt on the hard stone floor of her cell.

_ They did, _ she whispers to his mind and Pietro tilts his head back and smiles.

“We can change the world, now,” he says. “Mend it. Make Sokovia better, make it  _ more. _ Make it  _ great. _ ”

 

* * *

 

**vi.**   
Steve ducks as a blast of blue energy almost hits him. When the next comes at him he lifts his shield, rebounds the strike back at who sent it before hurling his shield with all his might. It ricochets between three soldiers, two walls and returns to his hand.

“Tesseract tech,” he says, and hears confirmation from Nat and Clint down comms. “Tony, you gonna join us any time soon?”

“Oh, I’m coming grandpa,” says Stark down comms. “Don’t you fret.”

Steve hears the sound of Stark’s repulsors winding up to send a strike, and Tony’s teasing “Duck!” before comms are filled with the yells of flying men.

 

* * *

 

**vii.**   
“The Avengers-”

List is a dishevelled mess, standing in the doorway to his office. Strucker is pretty sure he’s run all the way from his lab. Strucker rises, swipes the screen of his tablet to see the reports but-

“How?” He slips his commlink in but the chatter from the soldiers is already hiding any orders he might give. “How did we not-”

“They send a call, tried to contact, but the soldiers panicked,” List says. “Gave no response. They must have known we were here, with no response-”

“They know we’re Hydra,” Strucker says. “The twins.” He glances to List before grabbing his gun. “We have to get them out of here.”

The pair rush from Strucker’s office and leave the men to the vain defence of the castle.

Outside, lightning strikes.

 

* * *

 

**viii.**   
There is something scratching in the lock, then the slide of a bolt, then the  _ boop-beep _ of a pad accepting a passcode.

“Miss Maximoff?” List stands in the doorway. With her mind tied to her brother she can see through his eyes too, see Strucker letting him out. “The Avengers have come. They disapprove of our cell’s initiative to help you fight for yourselves. We need to get you and your brother out of here.”

She does not have to touch his mind to see that he includes himself and Strucker in that.

“The Avengers?” says Pietro. “Stark? He is  _ here?” _

She does not have the time to reach for his hand before he is a blur of blue.

 

* * *

 

**ix.**   
Steve hurls his shield and barely sees the blur before his shield is hurled back at him with so much force he skids as he tries to catch it. The blur is gone.

“There’s something in the field!” he calls.

“Enhanced!” calls Clint. “He caught my fucking arrow!”

 

* * *

 

**x.**   
“Miss Maximoff-” List is trying to get her attention, but she really doesn’t care. She can still just about feel Pietro’s mind - the far distance makes it a strain to maintain, like something is pinching and prickling her skin, but she can feel him still and that gives her the strength to continue. “Miss Maximoff, we should go.”

Wanda shakes her head. “Not without my brother,” she says. “You said you did this to us to make Sokovia great again, did you not? To put us on the map?” She smiles, and the red seeps through her eyes again. “What is the point if we do not fight for this?”

Strucker looks horrified, and Wanda’s scarlet catches the needle in List’s hand. 

“No,” she says. “I do not think so. Part me from my brother and I kill you both. Let me join my brother and we will gladly kill Stark and his ilk for you.”

This is not a choice Strucker and List need to consider.

 

* * *

 

**xi.**   
Nat’s got three courtyards cleared with overwatch from Tony and Clint when she has to roll to duck a barrage of bullets. “Incoming!” she yells before even touching the ground. 

It’s not until she’s behind cover she sees no feet on the ground, bar one pair.

Across the courtyard a girl stands, guns hovering in scarlet cast out from her hands.

 

* * *

 

**xii.**   
“Two enhanced?” Tony asks.

“They must have the sceptre,”  Thor says. “Stark, do you have the schematics for the building?”

“Head straight down, Point Break,” Tony says. “Huge cavern. If it's anywhere, it’ll be there.”

 

* * *

 

**xiii.**   
_ Wanda, _ Pietro sends.  _ Can you see them? _

_ All of them, _ she says.  _ Stark is here. _

 

* * *

 

**xiv.**   
“Has anyone got visuals?” Steve calls. Soldiers fall readily before him when the blur isn’t around, but the blur is faster than half his strikes, so the battle is turning in its favour.

“The girl is in the open,” Nat says. “Stark, can you scan an image for Hill?”

 

* * *

 

**xv.**   
_ Stark is in the sky, _ Pietro sends.  _ Can you catch him? _

Wanda doesn’t know. They’ve had these powers two days, they are barely practised let alone trained. She can feel Pietro’s speed slipping from his control, no taut-tamed rein on it but a whirling dervish that he has to sink into now to get the speed that would otherwise catch him unawares. _ I can try, _ she sends.  _ But not yet. _

 

* * *

 

**xvi.**   
“Wanda and Pietro Maximoff!” Hill calls. “JARVIS found them. Stark you’ve got the files on screen now.”

“Orphans,” he reads out. “Parents killed age ten, building collapse, probably a bomb. Protested. Recruited at a protest about a month back, brought to the castle a week ago.”

“Indoctrinated?” Nat asks.

“I don’t think so,” Tony says.

Steve catches his shield, heads for where Nat is pinned by the girl. Wanda. “If they’re fighting for the same reason they protested,” he says. “They wouldn’t have to be. Take down any soldiers you see, but if these two come at you, stand down.”

“You’re fucking insane,” Clint says. 

“They hate bullies,” Steve says. “So we stop being them.”

 

* * *

 

**xvii.**   
More than two thirds of the soldiers are down. Wanda cannot feel anymore coming forwards from the castle; they’ve sunk into positions and most of the men are retreating. She keeps the guns in her scarlet aimed where the Widow hides and casts her scarlet out to see what she can sense.

_ Pietro, _ she sends.  _ To me. _

He skids to a halt at her side in a moment. There’s more grey in his hair than ever before.

“Surrender,” she calls. “Or I will drag you out from behind the tank myself.”

 

* * *

 

**xviii.**   
“Steve,” Nat hisses down comms. “If you’re wrong about this I will kill you from beyond the grave.”

And she steps out, hands up.

 

* * *

 

**xix.**   
“I can take them out Steve,” Tony says. “Non-lethally even.”

“No,” Steve says. “Trust me.”

Clint does not move from the roof, arrow held loose but ready. “You’re making that pretty hard when Nat’s held at gunpoint by two enhanced.”

“If I’m wrong,” Steve says. “You can take me out too.”

Then over comms comes the unmistakable sound of the shield against hard stone.

 

* * *

 

**xx.**   
“Miss Maximoff,” Steve says genially, hands up. “Mr Maximoff.”

The boy looks like a seething shadow behind his sister, but he stays back at her waved hand. With her hand moving so does the wave of guns. This close, only a courtyard apart, he can clearly see the shock and half-fear in her eyes. 

“Would you mind setting those down?” he says. “I can survive quite a lot of bullets, but my colleague here can’t, and I’d really rather not get her killed.”

“How do we know you will not attack?” she asks. “You attacked the castle. Attacked SHIELD.”

Her brother, her shadow lifts his head. “Attack your own allies,” he says. “Because you think they shouldn’t help people help themselves.”

“We don’t attack our allies,” Steve says. “And I’d really like to help more people help themselves when I’m done fighting whatever else the world plans to throw at me.”

As he watches the twins glance to each other.

 

* * *

 

**xxi.**   
_ He’s not lying, _ Wanda says.  _ His mind is… It is…  _

_ Show me, _ Pietro sends.

What she shows him has no more words to describe it than he has to adequately explain the sensation of his sister’s mind against his. But he sees her certainty like stone as her scarlet lowers the guns.

“So you no longer ally with SHIELD then,” Wanda says. “Have you become Hydra too?”

The Widow chokes a laugh. “Us? Hydra? You do know Steve brought them down two weeks ago over the Potomac right?”

The twins glance to one another again. “So who-”

 

* * *

 

**xxii.**   
Steve watches as the pieces click together. Sees the twins hiss in anger, the boy become limned in blue, held back only by his sister’s clenched hand around his. As her other hand turns into a fist, the fallen guns crumple into balls of useless metal.

The girls mouth does not move as her voice still whispers  _ Liars _ into the air around them.

 

* * *

 

**xxiii.**   
Wanda does not crumple, but Pietro knows the look on Wanda’s face. 

“Go,” he says. “We will not attack.”

As soon as the Widow and the Captain are gone from the courtyard he wraps Wanda in his arms.

“Liars,” she whispers. “They-”

Her mind is whirling, as fast as his speed and he can feel it, bleeding speed from his mind until the blue at his edges fades away. He can half sense snippets of her thoughts, Hydra, yes, and the badge, and their cry, the blurry videos and crinkled sound from school classrooms, the twisted symbols on hanging flags, the stories their parents had told of grandparents, cousins, uncles and aunts all lost.

He scoops his sister into his arms, and gets them out of the castle.

 

* * *

 

**xxiv.**   
“Stark you still got line of sight on the twins?”

“Rogers, you know you’re crazy right?”

Steve’s laugh is as bright and unashamed as summer sunlight. “I’ve been called worse.”

“Want me to take them out now?”

“No!” he cries. “No. Just get the quinjet within a hundred yards of them. Quietly.”

 

* * *

 

**xxv.**   
The forest is quiet. Half the soldiers are sunk deep into the bunkers, or have already taken the tunnels to the deep cavern where Thor’s lightning is taking out everyone. Wanda can almost feel the strikes even at the vast distance and she wonders if it is because of the sceptre that triggered their powers was hidden there.

Pietro’s arms around her are steady and warm, and with their heads so close, his mind so near, she can almost feel the tree bark against his back.

She feels him flinch at the sound of crunching snow.

“Hey,” says a soft voice. She peeks over her brother’s arm. The Captain’s shield is on his back, and in his arms he holds two blankets. “How’re you two doing?”

 

* * *

 

**xxvi.**   
“More strays, Cap?” asks the Widow as they approach. Wanda stumbles along at Pietro’s side, though Pietro’s feet are far bloodier from fighting barefoot. “I thought Sam was gonna be the only one?”

Its clearly half a joke though, and space is already cleared for them. One of the group, a man with salt-and-pepper hair, has them lift their feet up so he can swab them down with anti-bacterial wipes and strap bandages on.

“More strays,” Cap agrees as the back of the plane closes up. “If they’re willing, at least.”

 

* * *

 

**Author's Note:**

> Please leave comments!


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